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28-400: Calliopean was founded in 1819 by a group of members of Linonia dissatisfied with the result of an election for the presidency of the latter society. The name may allude to The Calliopean Society of New York City, which operated from the 1780s until 1831. The New York City Society has been described as "a queer assemblage...a club of bachelors who celebrated their indolent disengagement from

56-612: A Yale society. It is speculated that this struggle launched the Brothers' century-long rivalry with Linonia. Through at least 1841, the society is said to have followed the template of other debating societies, although operating under "Masonic secrecy," according to 19th-century Yale historian Ebenezer Baldwin . Baldwin wrote that the group, in conjunction with Linonia and the Calliopean Society , discussed scientific questions and gravitated towards literary pursuits. This

84-835: A lecture named for Morrison Waite , the seventh chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court , who helped strike down the Civil Rights Act of 1875 . The Brothers also award the David Humphreys Prize for a valedictory oration. In 2022, the Brothers donated photographs and documents concerning its revival to the Yale University Library 's Manuscript and Archives collection. Membership in Brother in Unity admits 10 new members each spring. A current Yale professor acts as an ex-officio member to advise

112-411: A non-political basis) to rising seniors of exceptional spirit, intelligence, and talent. Calliopean became increasingly active during the 1970s during the presidency of Martin D. "Chip" Gatter, Class of 1973, holding annual parties and special events in unusual locations by a cryptic constitutional provision permitting official meetings to be held only "on street corners and in dark alleys" and adopting

140-594: A program of promoting "intellectual diversity at any cost". For many decades, the Calliopean Society had no physical location, listing itself as located at "1985 Yale Station, New Haven, Connecticut 06520". Its 1985 box number had been chosen to refer to the inevitable victory of the West over the collectivist totalitarianism described in George Orwell 's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four . During much of

168-722: Is commemorated in the Linonia and Brothers Reading Room at Yale's Sterling Memorial Library . The reading room contains the Linonia and Brothers (L&B) collection, a travel collection, a collection devoted to medieval history, and a selection of new books recently added to Sterling's collections. The library is undergoing renovation to be completed in 2023. The Linonian Society, Brothers in Unity, and Calliope are commemorated with courtyards in Branford College . Brothers in Unity Brothers in Unity (formally,

196-471: Is drawn from students in the senior undergraduate class, Yale Law School , Yale Graduate School , and Yale School of Management . Linonia is the only Yale secret society known to tap students beyond the undergraduates. Each delegate is selected by unanimous vote among Linonia alumni and delegates. Linonia participates in Yale's tap night during the second week of April. Unlike many secret societies whose focus

224-451: Is substantiated by the Brothers' public documentation, which says the society sought "lofty places in science, literature, and oratory" fields, as well as general "intellectual improvement." It also produced plays, including contemporary British dramas and works by its members. By the beginning of the 19th century, most Yale College students joined either the Brothers or Linonia. "While the official curriculum remained extraordinarily rigid,

252-416: Is the members' biographies, Linonia meetings often involve debate on intellectual and political topics. In 1871, Linonia and Brothers donated their literary collections to the university's new central library, then shut down. Both societies had kept substantial collections of works not deemed suitable by the Yale faculty, which did not teach English literature until the late nineteenth century. The donation

280-510: Is the university's second-oldest secret society . Linonia was founded on September 12, 1753, as Yale College 's second literary and debating society, after Crotonia , founded in 1738. By the late eighteenth century, all incoming freshmen became members either of Linonia or its rival society, Brothers in Unity , which was founded in 1768. Other debating societies arose throughout the eighteenth and early nineteenth century, notably Calliope in 1819, but were relatively short-lived. By

308-468: The Society of Brothers in Unity ) is an undergraduate literary and debating society at Yale University . Founded in 1768 as a literary and debating society that encompassed nearly half the student body at its 19th-century peak, the group disbanded in the late 1870s after donating its collection of books to help form Yale's central library. It was revived in 2021 as a secret society by members of

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336-727: The U.S. foreign service , and U.S. intelligence community ; and, in "exceptional circumstances", people who demonstrate business leadership or entrepreneurship. The society is funded by the 1768 Foundation Inc., a 501(c)(3) public charity administered by alumni. Internally, members call the society the Brotherhood. In 1768 or 1769, the Brothers adopted the motto E parvis oriuntur magna , meaning "From small things come great things". Its values are chivalry, openness, and selflessness. Brothers in Unity holds debates and invites speakers to discuss contemporary entrepreneurship, foreign policy, literature, and politics. In 2021, it hosted

364-656: The 1970s and 1980s, Calliopean was given by the university use of the attic space in Bingham Hall equipped with an old observatory dome. Calliope is commemorated on the Yale University campus by Calliope Court, one of three small courtyards within Branford College. These courtyards were named for literary societies that donated their libraries to Yale. Linonia Linonia is a literary and debating society founded in 1753 at Yale University . It

392-579: The Anglo-American power establishment... and used their marginal position to prospect truths not viewed by useful and virtuous citizens of the Republic. They were one of the first of the type of masculine literary cabal that would become common after 1800: the sort of club that Washington Irving, the prince of old bachelors, nourished and that the young Federalist Bachelors of arts formed after graduating from Harvard and finding themselves locked out of

420-412: The defunct society in a different form. While the original Brothers had a relatively open admissions policy and a large membership, its new incarnation follows the model of Yale's restrictive and smaller senior secret societies . The new group says it seeks members with professional experience in, or simply passion for, certain types of public service, including the U.S. armed forces , U.S. Congress ,

448-616: The end of the Civil War , the social dominance of Linonia and Brothers began to decline. Both folded in the 1870s. The debating society system ultimately evolved into the Yale Union and later in 1934, the Yale Political Union . Linonia was reconstituted multiple times throughout the 20th century, with its current form taking the shape of Yale's other undergraduate secret societies . Each year's delegation of twenty

476-516: The halls of power by Thomas Jefferson. The groups collected the odd fellows who had given up on cultivating character and civic virtue and domestic responsibility and patriarchy and opted instead for projecting personality, indulging genius, pursuing pleasure, and damning commerce. [It] was an early version of that sort of humorous society of eccentrics portrayed by Charles Dickens in The Pickwick Papers ." Another literary society of

504-418: The library's invitation to house their collections in the new building. For several decades, the collections were maintained separately, each with a librarian, staff, catalogs, and building entrance. However, the society declined during the Civil War and against the competition of newer secret societies such as Skull and Bones . Linonia and Brothers proposed donating their collections to Yale in 1860, and this

532-440: The new society, as described in Brothers in Unity's 1841 catalog of members. But within a year, Brothers became fully independent, its popularity influencing other societies to reconsider their exclusion of first-year students. The Yale College freshman class of 1771 ultimately yielded 15 members to the new group, while the older Linonian Society accepted four—the first recorded time in which underclassmen were publicly accepted into

560-554: The same name had been formed in Bermuda in 1790 by George Tucker , at that time under the tutelage of Josiah Meigs , who later became Professor of Moral Philosophy at Yale. At Yale, Calliopean was distinguished from rival societies Linonia and Brothers-In-Unity by a larger proportion of membership from Southern states. Increasing sectional tensions before the American Civil War caused Calliopean to disband in 1853. It

588-402: The senior class and alumni. The Society of Brothers in Unity at Yale College was founded in 1768 by 21 members of the Yale classes of 1768, 1769, 1770, and 1771. The society was founded chiefly to reduce class separation among literary societies; at the time, Yale freshmen were not "received" into any society, and junior society members were forced into the servitude of seniors "under dread of

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616-441: The severest penalties". David Humphreys , a freshman of the class of 1771, persuaded two members of the senior class, three junior class members, two sophomores, and 14 freshmen to support the establishment of a new society. Its founding members were: The group picked Stanley as its first president. The notion of including freshmen was challenged by two or three existing literary groups that waged "an incessant war" against

644-521: The society. As of October 2023, it had 120 alumni and current members. Members of the group between 1768 and 1841 include 26 Yale valedictorians, several Supreme Court justices, one Chief Justice, six governors, 13 Senators, 45 Congressional representatives, a Secretary of the Navy, a Secretary of the Treasury, a Postmaster General, 14 presidents of colleges and universities, two U.S. Attorneys General, and

672-421: The student body built a rich extra-curriculum through the literary societies that allowed them to explore subjects that would normally have no place in the college," wrote Elizabeth James in 2015. "Research papers, debates, and literary exercises gave vitality to intellectual life within the college. The societies provided a place where student voices and opinions could be heard, and their questions or thoughts about

700-566: The world around them interrogated by their classmates."  These societies helped pave Yale's way toward a broader European model of education. Both groups held expansive literary collections, which they used to compete against each other. Between 1780 and 1841, the Brothers claimed to own more volumes than Linonia, although these assertions are disputed. Despite their rivalry, the two societies described each other as "ornaments" of Yale and "generous rivals." When Yale built its first central library in 1846, Linonia and Brothers in Unity accepted

728-482: Was finally done in 1872. These donations are commemorated in the Linonia and Brothers Room of Yale's Sterling Memorial Library . The reading room contains the Linonia and Brothers (L&B) collection, a travel collection, a collection devoted to medieval history, and books recently added to Sterling's collections. Brothers in Unity disbanded after the library donation; various sources say this happened in 1871, 1872, or 1878. In 2021, 21 Yale undergraduates revived

756-702: Was one of the presidents of Calliopean during that period. Calliopean was subsequently remodeled into a Senior Honorary Society, on the models of the Aurelian Honor Society and the Torch Honor Society . Membership was limited to people in the Yale College senior class, but officers (appointed by the president) could be chosen from any class. Membership was annually awarded each spring by the Calliopean president and director (on

784-404: Was revived in 1950 as a conservative alternative to New Deal liberalism and mainstream Republican student groups at Yale. For a bit over a decade from the 1950s through the early 1960s, the Calliopean Society conducted a program of debates and meetings featuring guest speakers, and maintained its own library. M. Stanton Evans , Class of 1955, later a syndicated columnist and conservative activist,

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